This All-Inclusive Giant Just Opened Its First Resort in a New Country — With a Safari

Club Med has opened its first resort in South Africa, and it comes with something no other property in the all-inclusive operator's portfolio can claim: access to a private Big Five game reserve. The Club Med South Africa Beach & Safari resort welcomed its first guests on July 4 at Tinley Manor on the KwaZulu-Natal coast, about 45 minutes north of Durban.

It is, by the operator's own account, the only all-inclusive resort in the country. The beachfront half holds 411 rooms and suites, a trio of swimming pools, multiple restaurants and bars, and Club Med's first-ever surf school — a nod to the Indian Ocean breaks just beyond the sand. Tennis, kayaking, circus workshops and kids' clubs round out the daily program.

The safari half is what sets it apart. A short drive inland, the separate Vikela Safari Lodge sits inside a private reserve spanning more than 18,000 hectares, home to lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard and rhino. The lodge offers 75 to 80 bungalows and daily game drives, though the safari is booked separately and costs extra on top of the nightly rate, which starts around $275 per person.

The opening marks a meaningful expansion for Club Med, which has spent recent years pushing beyond its European ski and Mediterranean beach heartland into long-haul leisure markets. Bundling a coastal resort and a wildlife lodge under one all-inclusive booking is a first for the brand, and a bet that travelers want beach and bush without assembling the trip themselves. For a country better known for boutique safari camps, the arrival of a mass-market all-inclusive name is a notable shift.